Menu

Ultima and Lord British -
Origins

Richard Garriott 1981

Enter Akalabeth

Texas, 1977. While attending Clear Creek High School in Houston, 16-year-old Richard Garriott is writing dungeon games produced on a teletype machine with punch cards at the school and getting A’s for them from bewildered teachers. Through his high school “career”, he creates 28 such fantasy works. In 1979, while working part-time at a local Computerland store, he is exposed to the Apple II and decides to write an Applesoft BASIC game for the platform incorporating elements from his other interests, organizing large Dungeons & Dragons games in his parents’ house and reading Tolkien. Calling the game Akalabeth, he finishes the program that summer. In it the player scrolls around a map of ASCII symbols completing quests given by Lord British and battling creatures in black & white outline psuedo-3D dungeons. The game so impresses the manager of the store that he convinces Garriott to offer it for sale. Spending 200 dollars on Ziplock bags and cover sheets, he only sells about eight copies on cassette tape. But, unbeknownst to him, his boss has sent one copy to west coast software outfit California Pacific Computer Company, who fly Garriott to California to sign a contract for publishing rights. Releasing the game on 5 1/4″ floppies, Akalabeth is a big hit in 1980, selling 30,000 copies. Dissatisfied with the original cover sheet design, a new one is commissioned by Garriott from acquaintance Denis Loubet, who goes on to provide artwork for many of Garriott’s later works. All of the games are credited to Lord British, a nickname having been created by his fellow students at the University of Oklahoma due to Garriott’s use of proper English. While born on the very American date of July 4 in 1961, the location of his birth was actually Cambridge, England. While Garriott was a mere two months old when his family returned to California, this tale of a British birth probably added to the overall effect.

Dungeon crawling in Akalabeth

Lord British/Richard Garriott, 1981

Insert sheet for original Akalabeth packaging

Topside in Akalabeth

Akalabeth cover for California Pacific release

Akalabeth ad, Denis Loubet art

Al Remmers, head of California Pacific, 1981

Ultimate Adventure

That fall, nineteen-year-old Garriott starts classes at the University of Texas. Still living at his parent’s house in Houston, he and friend Ken Arnold begin work on another game Garriott calls Ultimatum, also programmed in BASIC. But a board game by Dallas, TX-based Yaquinto Publications, released in 1979, already exists with that name, so they shorten the title to Ultima. Later subtitled The First Age of Darkness, it features a tile-based graphics engine, with the same look-down perspective as Akalabeth. Set in the mystical land of Sosaria, our nameless hero must use might and magic to slaughter evil creatures roaming the landscape, gaining experience and hit-points for the ultimate showdown with the big boss…the evil wizard Mondain. Multiple castles dotting the land are ruled by different kings, who’s quests must be completed to finish the game. Upon entering a dungeon, the graphics are reminiscent of those in Akalabeth, with notable improvements. In the package for Ultima is a game disk, as well as a master player disk which users are expected to copy if they want to create multiple characters.

When released by California Pacific in 1981, it sells even more than the first game (a re-release is made by Origin in 1986, featuring spruced-up graphics). While working on a follow-up that year, Garriott attends multiple showings of Terry Gilliam’s movie Time Bandits, and uses maps and concepts from the film in the design of the game. After a falling-out with California Pacific, Garriott signs a deal with Sierra to distribute his next game, as they’re the only company he talks to that agrees to include a cloth map with the packaging. Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress is released for the Apple II in 1982, with a limited interaction with NPCs (non-player characters) now possible. The game also marks the beginning of Ultima’s move to assembly language, greatly increasing the speed of the games. Deep into his persona as Lord British, Garriott has taken to appearing at software trade shows in full royal regalia, including crown, cape, and medieval sword.

Origin Story

After the release of Ultima II, Garriott drops out of the University of Texas to work on the Ultimas full-time. A friend from back in their high-school computing days, as well as Garriott’s roommate in college, Chuck “Chuckles” Bueche ports UII over to the Atari 800 computer for Sierra and becomes the character Chuckles the Clown in the Ultima series. When Sierra offers a questionable royalty deal for the release of the PC version of Ultima II, Garriott decides to create his own company to produce and distribute the games. Origin Systems Inc. is founded in 1983 by Richard Garriott, his older brother Robert, their father Owen, Keith Zabalaoui, Ken Arnold and Chuck Bueche. Robert is the one handling the business side of things. That fall the company releases Ultima III: Exodus, with some major advances over the previous games. A multi-party system is introduced, allowing the player to create four adventurers to control. The combat system is also revamped, with a zoom-in to the battle, and allowing each character a turn to attack. Also released that year is the oddball Ultima: Escape from Mt. Drash, forCommodore’s VIC-20 computer. The game is made by Keith Zabalaoui. It tasks players to escape the 15-level dungeon of Mt. Drash and features a screen split into multiple views: a 3D view of the dungeon hallways and rooms, as well as an overhead view of the layout and a tactical battle screen along the bottom portion. The graphics are comprised of the built-in graphical character symbols on the VIC. Sierra slaps an Ultima label on the game to help it sell, but it moves so little units that it eventually becomes a highly sought rarity item for game collectors.

Lord British composes a decree, circa 1984

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, Lord British circa 1984

Ultima: Escape From Mt. Drash, 1983

Screencap of the fabled Mt. Drash

Facing off in Ultima III

Thy fortunes revealed in Ultima IV

Ultima V cloth map, included in the box

Signing a distribution deal with Electronic Arts in 1984, Origin begins work on the next installment, the first in the “Avatar” trilogy, which will be a drastic departure from the original trilogy games. It is the first “ethics” based CRPG, requiring the player to answer moral questions, whose answers determine their character. Actions taken throughout the game are remembered by the citizens of the world, and one could be refused business at a local shop if one’s reputation was tarnished enough. Instead of simply roaming the countryside looking for orc ass to kick, the player must seek out the temples of the eight virtues and integrate them into his being. The Apple II version of Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar is released in 1985, and in 1988 Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny becomes the final game for that platform as Origin games move exclusively to the PC. This same year also marks Origin’s re-release of the original three Ultima games in a single package, so newcomers can see where it all began. Ultima VI: The False Prophet arrives in 1990, introducing an isometric view of the action. 1992 sees the release of Ultima VII: The Black Gate, the last game independently produced by Origin. EA buys the company that year in a deal worth $35 million, paid for with around 1.3 million in EA shares. Richard Garriott retains his position as President and CEO as Origin.

New Dimensions

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss is another huge departure in the series, being one of the earliest fully graphic first-person 3D games. It is released in March of 1992, preceding id Software’s 3D makeover of MUSE’s Castle Wolfensein by two months. It also features several technological advances over id’s product, including the player’s ability to look up and down. A sequel, Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds, follows the next year. In 1997, in the middle of the multiplayer gaming explosion, the company releases two years of work with Ultima Online, the largest Internet gaming system yet conceived. Here players can move about the Ultima universe with a large number of real-life human counterparts online, joining guilds and participating in multi-character quests assigned by Lord British himself. There are, however, several disgruntled players who sue Origin in 1998, represented by George Schultz of the law firm of Bauer and Schultz. The lawsuit claims several failures of Origin to meet its extravagant promises for the service a year after its creation, such as regular, unscheduled down-times and surprise costs not explained to the consumer. The suit is settled in 1999, with EA donating $15,000 dollars to the San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation, although not officially admitting to any wrong-doing.

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss

Ultima Online logo

Owen Garriott on Spacelab, circa 1983

Garriott/British examining his wares, 1991

See where it all began with the Ultima Trilogy, 1988

Garriott on space training flight during Tabula Rasa launch, 2007

The Avatar Rests

Along with Chris Robert’s Wing Commander franchise, the Ultimas give Origin its powerful place in the world of computer gaming until absorbed by EA and eventually dismantled in 2004. Ultima IX: Ascension is the last in the series, released in 1999, marking 20 years of the long, fruitful reign of Lord British over the computer RPG landscape. After the shaky release of Ultima IX, Garriott leaves Origin, the company he created, and in 2000 founds Destination Games with his brother Robert and Starr Long who follow him from Origin. Joining forces with MMOG maker NCSoft, they release sci-fi MMOG Tabula Rasa in 2007. With the title meaning “blank slate” in Latin, the game is meant to be a redefining of the online RPG genre, but the game is met with mostly blank stares from the public and paid subscriptions to the online service lag. In 2008, while Garriott is still in quarantine after his trip into space, his departure from Destination Games is announced by NCSoft. He later sues the company over the resignation, terming the announcement and his forced resignation from the company, as fraudulent. He is eventually awarded a 28 million dollar judgment against NCSoft, which is upheld in appeals court.

Rocket Man

As a son of NASA Scientist-Astronaut Owen Garriott, who broke records with his 60 day Skylab 3 mission in 1973 as well as a trip to Spacelab-1 on the space shuttle Columbia in 1983, Richard Garriott chases his own dreams of space. He becomes the 6th private citizen to journey into orbit on the International Space Station in the fall of 2008, via private space trip facilitator Space Adventures, of which he is a principal investor. Garriott spends 12 days in space, returning to Earth on Oct. 24, 2008.

Avatar Awoken

In a bid to return to his Ultima roots, Garriott co-founds yet another game development company, Portalarium, in 2009 along with Dallas Snell and Fred Schmidt. One of their products is the 2018 Kickstarter-funded Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues, bringing an Ultima-style RPG to modern platforms for Lord British to reign over once again.

2-page ad for Ultimas I & 2, 1982

Lord British, undated photo

Garriott/Lord British, looking excited to be appearing in the pages of the National Enquirer, 1983